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I’m Bob Larson. New studies here in the Northwest are showing promise for fighting devastating diseases like Potato Virus Y.

From Oregon State University Hermiston Ag Research and Extension Center, professor Aymeric Goyer says it’s kind of like a person visiting the doctor to get vaccinated …

GOYER … “So, it’s about the same principle for plants. You apply this vitamin and it triggers some resistance mechanism. And so, once the pathogen comes on the crop and where there’s already resistance status of the plant so it reacts faster and more efficiently so it’s able to fight off this pathogen.”

Goyer say they are still in the early stages of their research, but so far so good …

GOYER … “The results are very promising, I think. We’ve shown a decrease in PDY in potato in the virus when we apply vitamin B-1 and it’s been shown in other crops against other pathogens. So, it seems to be something we could apply to different crops and in potato we need to do more tests, but it seems that it should work on different varieties and it may work against different pathogens, not just PDY. We haven’t tested that yet, but that is something we’d like to do.”

Goyer says everything they’ve done so far has been in the greenhouse and they’re looking forward to being able to take their tests into the field.

He says it’s important to note that vitamin B-1 did not stop the PDY completely and should be considered as an additional tool rather than a cure.